Pokémon Platinum Version (Japanese: ポケットモンスター プラチナPocket Monsters Platinum) is the third game to Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, and is the third Generation IVmain series game. The game was first seen on May 11, 2008 when a low-resolution cell-phone picture of an upcoming issue ofCoroCoro magazine was leaked around the Internet. On May 15, the magazine was officially released and the game was also officially confirmed by Nintendo. The game was released in Japan on September 13, 2008, in North America on March 22, 2009, in Australia on May 14, 2009, in Europe on May 22, 2009 and in Korea on July 2, 2009.

Like previous third versions, the region and starting area remain the same as in previously released paired versions; in Platinum, the player begins his or her journey from Twinleaf Town across all of Sinnoh.

Changes from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

Aesthetic changes

Lucas, Dawn, and Barry have different outfits designed for colder weather, as the entire Sinnoh region has changed in temperature.

The player's house now has a wallpaper in their room.

The template for the level, HP, and name of Pokémon in battle is a dark gray instead of white, and its shape has changed.

The Pokétch has been redesigned. Players can now move up and down between apps instead of having to go through all of them to return to a previous one.

When Pokémon are sent out from their Poké Balls, their back sprites now animate much like their front sprites have since Emerald (i.e., multiple frames of animation in addition to the various distortions and filters already used). Front sprites for Generation IV Pokémon and other Pokémon in theSinnoh Pokédex have also changed. Certain Pokémon not in the Sinnoh Pokédex, like Meowth, also received a change in sprites.

Closeups of Gym Leaders, just before a battle, have been changed from enlarged sprites to higher-quality drawings and the terms VS; the Frontier Brains also have this feature. The Elite Four have this as well, but the animation includes the player on the left side of the "VS." and the Elite Four member on the right side.

The rooms where the player battle the Elite Four have been redesigned. Aaron now has logs and foliage in his room. Bertha now has rocks in her room. Flint now contains lava pits in his room. Lucian's room has only had minor changes to now include four large lights or glowing orbs on the floor.Cynthia's room has changed its color scheme and the lift leading up to the Hall of Fame is now partially contained. The Pokémon Center at the Elite Four has also been redesigned.

When the player starts the battle with the Giratina in the Distortion World, instead of displaying "A wild GIRATINA appeared!", it displays "The Distortion World's GIRATINA appeared!". It is referred to as "the wild GIRATINA" in other instances, such as attacking, however.

The trees on West Sinnoh have sharper angles and a point at the top, compared to rounded branches and a rounded top in Diamond and Pearl, and are also slightly darker. The trees in East Sinnoh are also slightly darker, but it is now a completely different hue than the trees in West Sinnoh, and are more rounded than in Diamond and Pearl, while the Battle Zone has completely new trees altogether.

The battle menu was redesigned.

When Spiritomb appears in the wild or comes out of a Trainer's Poké Ball, the Odd Keystone is seen for a few seconds in its battle animation.

A new area known as the Distortion World is playable. It has floor-like sections floating at ninety-degree angles from each other, creating an effect similar to the art of M. C. Escher. It doesn't follow the Laws of Physics, making things like surfing down a waterfall going up possible. The camera angle switches between perspective and isometric views to suit the angle of the player. It also has moving platforms with jumpable gaps between them. Giratina, when here, will be in its Origin Forme and is also the only wild Pokémon located here.

Two new characters to the main storyline were added. One is Charon, a professor and Commander of Team Galactic, and the other is a police officer spying on Team Galactic, using the codename "Looker".

A tag battle between the player and his or her rival against Flint and Volkner takes place at the entrance to the Battle Frontier when the player first arrives there.

Team Galactic's plans to re-create the world have changed slightly. The layouts of their HQs, such as the one in Eterna, have been changed. Team Galactic now utilizes more resources in order to reach their goal, as well as explaining why, in-game, such as the power from the Valley Windworks, as well as planting a bomb on the Great Marsh for attention in order to allow more people to realize what they're trying to do.

Some of the Gym Leaders have been reordered: Fantina is now the third Gym Leader, Maylene is the fourth and Crasher Wake is the fifth. The appearance of players' gym badge case stays the same though.

Team Galactic appears in Stark Mountain under the command of Charon, who seeks to use the destructive power of the volcano to extort money from the people of Sinnoh. The player, with help from Buck, must defeat them. During this event, Mars and Jupiter quit Team Galactic because Charon does not share the same ideals as ex-boss Cyrus. Ultimately, Charon and his two accompanying grunts are apprehended by Looker and two policemen.

After the aforementioned event, the player is able to challenge all the Gym Leaders of Sinnoh to rematches in the Battleground. The player's tag battle partners from throughout the game (Cheryl, Buck, Marley, Mira, andRiley) are also able to be challenged in this place. Each of the 13 characters has a team of five Pokémon, whose levels are between 61 and 66.

The Elite Four increase their Pokémon's levels after the player has completed the Stark Mountain event. Their levels are now between 65 and 78.

When one finishes the Stark Mountain quest, instead of the rival appearing at the Fight Area on weekends, he now appears at the Survival Area in front of the Battleground. During the first battle, the levels of the Pokémon in his party range from 59-65, second battle 69-75, and third and beyond 79-85. On his last battle, he was the trainer with the highest-leveled Pokémon in all main series games, until Red's team in Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver.

When first visiting the Resort Area, the player receives a villa. Inside on a table is a catalog that lists items that can be purchased to furnish the house in the same manner as decorating a secret base. The player will be visited by NPCs such as the Sinnoh Gym Leaders, the player's mom, Professor Rowan, and the rival.

Gameplay changes

Giratina's cry will be heard when "Start" or "A" are pressed at the title screen, unlike in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl which just play a snippet of the title theme's melody. It shares this trait with some games from previous generations.

The Wi-Fi area has been enhanced with the Wi-Fi Plaza, which supports up to 20 people at a time. The new area seems to focus exclusively on mini-games, which include Wobbuffet Pop, where players hit aWobbuffet, Mime Jr. Top, where players can balance Mime Jr. on a ball and Swalot Plop where players throw berries at a Swalot machine.

There is a new key item called the Vs. Recorder (given by Looker when the player first meets him in Jubilife City), which allows players to record battles in Battle Frontier and Wi-Fi, and share the records with other players over the GTS. Players can also take pictures of their PC boxes and share them with other players in a similar fashion.

The GTS has incorporated an e-mail system that allows players to be notified of completed trades. Notification messages are sent to the player's e-mail account, which can be viewed through the player's PC, mobile phone, or Wii system.

In non-Japanese versions, however, the system was downgraded to Wii messaging only. Thus, in these versions, notification messages are sent and must be viewed through the Wii's Message Board.

The Sinnoh starters and their evolutions are now allowed in an expanded Amity Square, making a total of 20 Pokémon allowed in the Square.

Over local wireless, there is a new feature called Spin Trade where the player and their friends can put their Pokémon eggs in and randomly swap. Trainers that obtain eggs that land on the Bonus Area, the spotted ones, get a berry too.

The game's speed with some features is faster compared to Diamond and Pearl, particularly while surfing and during battles. These improvements make the game almost as fast as the Generation III games, though the player still walks slower than the Generation III standard, and the FPS of Platinum is only 30.

European versions of the game are no longer able to play slot machines. These versions of the game replace slot machines with game machines, a machine that simply gives coins to the player with little interactivity. The reason this was done is due to implementation of stricter legislation against gambling in the European Union. This issue will cause similar changes in future European versions of Pokémon games as well.

As in Generations II and III, it is possible to ride a bicycle in gatehouses separating cities or towns and routes, something that was made impossible in Diamond and Pearl.

When the player uses his or her radar while in the Underground, it takes two seconds before another radar signal to be used. In Diamond and Pearl, it only took one second.

The Lustrous and Adamant Orbs are no longer found on Spear Pillar as in Diamond and Pearl, instead they must be found in a cave somewhere in the snowfields of Mt. Coronet. To be able to catch Dialga and Palkia, the player must have obtained the items in that cave and must have faced Giratina, whether it was caught or not. Then the player can go up Mt. Coronet to where Giratina took the player and Cyrus in to the Distortion World.

If a legendary Pokémon is not captured, it will reappear after defeating the Elite Four.

The level progression of the average opponent's Pokémon has been increased. An example of this is that in Diamond and Pearl, Barry's starter Pokémon in the battle at Pastoria City is at level 28. In Platinum, it is at level 36. Almost every trainer's roster in the game has had their levels increased by at least one. However, the Elite Four's Pokémon have been lowered by four levels the first time the player faces them.

Obtainable Pokémon

59 more Pokémon have been added to the Sinnoh Pokédex to give it a grand total of 210 entries, with all non-legendary Pokémon introduced in Generation IV now included, along with their pre-evolved forms and several other Pokémon. The added Pokémon, such as Rotom and Giratina, are now available prior to the Elite Four challenge.

Giratina can appear both as Altered Forme and Origin Forme in Platinum. It will appear in Origin Forme while in the Distortion World, and in Altered Forme while out of it. A Griseous Orb is required to transform it to its Origin Forme outside of the Distortion World.

The ability of Origin Forme is Levitate and its base stats mirror those of Altered Forme in that the offensive stats have been switched with their respective defensive stats.

Shaymin is able to change between its two forms via the use of the Gracidea. This item doesn't work at night or if Shaymin is frozen.

Rotom has new forms as well. Each of the five forms is a Rotom that has possessed an electrical appliance. Despite having visual characteristics of other types, the five forms share the original Rotom's Electric andGhost types, whereas their base stats are far higher. They also share the original Rotom's ability: Levitate. These Pokémon are not normally available and are therefore banned from official tournaments. The item to unlock these Pokémon in the game, the Secret Key, is an event-only item.

Eterna City has been refurbished with new foliage and pathways. Also the Galactic Eterna Building has had a complete redesign, inside and out. It now contains a secret room where Rotom can switch between its forms.

Cycling Road has been redesigned and now has tunnel-like shelters in the middle of the Cycle Route, as well as lights along the sides of it.

Amity Square has been completely remodeled. It now includes a small pond, more paths and more upper levels. The old buildings that previously inhabited Amity Square now contain Warp Panels which transport the player to the other old buildings within Amity Square.

Lost Tower has had its color scheme changed and now has fog on three of its five floors, which can be cleared by HM05 (Defog).

Pastoria City's houses have been remodeled and now also includes a board with a Croagunk on it which is located in front of the Great Marsh. On occasions, if the player stands behind the Croagunk Wall with the player's head sticking out of it, a wild Croagunk will come, but it will just cry and walk into the Great Marsh building.

The Great Marsh has had its color scheme changed and has also had foliage changed and added.

The area of water to the south of Snowpoint City where the player can get a boat to the Battle Zone now contains a small amount of icebergs. These can also be seen in the ocean when the boat is crossing to the Battle Zone. The boat has also been redesigned, most likely due to the icebergs in the sea.

Reception

Upon its release, Pokémon Platinum received very good review scores from critics. IGN gave the game a "Great" score with an 8.8 out of 10 stating that, "Yes, It's still good. Even two years later".[1] It currently holds an 83% rating on Gamerankings.com, while being reviewed by a total of 34 sources.[2]

Famitsū, a Japanese video game magazine, noted that Platinum was the fastest selling game released for the Nintendo DS. It also had the tenth highest selling figures of any game for 2009, and was the only game for the DS to place in the top ten.[3]

Trivia

This is the first game where a version mascot's primary color is not the name of the game. However, while no color is especially dominant in Giratina's color scheme, it has gray elements that the "Platinum" may refer to, and the names Giratina and Platina share the same word ending.

Platinum is the first game to be named after a metal since Pokémon Gold and Silver, and the first game to not be named after a precious stone since then.

It also makes Generation IV the first generation in which two game names have the same first initial in English (Pearl and Platinum). However, other languages have had the same initial in their game names, with Spanish Azul and Amarillo for Blue and Yellow and German Saphir and Smaragd for Sapphire and Emerald. Coincidentally, all three of these are the respective second and third versions of their generation.

A small cosmetic mistake was made during the development of Platinum. Normally, when the player picks up an item on the ground, it disappears and the message saying "[Player] received a(n)/the [item]". However, when the player approaches the Poké Ball containing the Griseous Orb, it displays "[Player] received a Griseous Orb!" before it disappears. This was corrected in the English version of the game.

In the Turnback Cave, however, the item in the last room by the portal still has this mistake.

All of the Pokémon in the Sinnoh Pokédex as well as a few other non-Sinnoh native Pokémon got new sprite designs, as is customary for third versions. However, the Diamond and Pearl sprites are still used when the player dresses up the Pokémon either in Super Contests or in the Jubilife TV station. Over half of the 493 Pokémon had either minor or major tweaks in their backsprites.

In the instruction manual included with the game, it says that there are 493 Pokémon to be discovered. However, the game was released before Arceus, the 493rd Pokémon, was officially revealed.

Like Diamond and Pearl, the issue with Korean characters remains. However, whereas Diamond and Pearl showed empty spaces, Platinum, and subsequently HeartGold and SoulSilver, instead show dashes.

This is the first game where the player can battle an NPC in a Pokémon Center.

With a total of eighteen legendary Pokémon, Pokémon Platinum has the most legendary Pokémon out of any main series game.

The events of Pokémon Platinum, such as the Distortion World, Giratina, the Battle Castle, Caitlin's appearance, and Cynthia being defeated by a young trainer from Sinnoh, were mentioned several times in Pokémon Black and White, confirming that Pokémon Black and White's, and in whole, Generation V's canon follows the story after the events in Pokémon Platinum rather than that of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.